PRESS RELEASE: Winter 2012/13

Winter at Snow+Rock: Trends and hot products – Winter Sports 2012/13

This season heralds some of the best clothing and equipment ranges for 10 years! So it's an exciting time for snow sports. Here we've selected some of the highlights and focused on technology innovations, product launches and new brands to Snow+Rock:

New Brands:

Women’s Clothing:

SCOTT: Already a well respected brand in skis and poles, we’re now adding their clothing to our women’s range. The exciting clothing range is super bright and styled for the more adventurous freeride female skiers. Features GORE-Tex at an affordable price.

POIVRE BLANC: We’ve expanded the French brand’s popular children and baby selection to include their women’s wear. Offering simple, feminine designs in flattering silhouettes.

Men's Clothing:

VOLCOM: Volcom is a modern lifestyle brand that embodies the creative spirit of youth culture. Products incorporate a distinctive mixture of fashion and function combined with quality, comfort and athletic performance. The capsule (online only) menswear collection is bright and fun.

OAKLEY: We’ve introduced a range of menswear clothing catering for a broad age group and budget. Products include pro-rider designs from Seth Morrison and Jake Blauvelt.

DAKINE: New outerwear collection from the respected luggage and bag brand. Products have a technical freeride and backcountry slant for the savvy older customer looking for the next cool brand.

Baselayers:

MONS ROYALE: Uber cool merino wool brand offering stylish underwear and baselayers that are perfect up the mountain or on the city streets. Started in 2009 in Lake Wanaka, New Zealand, they already have a loyal following and are exclusive to Snow+Rock in the UK.

Equipment:

LANGE: Respected brand focuses on only on producing the best ski boots.

BERN: Fun funky helmets, which can double for cycling when back at home!

WHITE DOCTOR: Freeride and Park skis. Simple design with an innovative categorisation. Produced in Serre Chevalier they’re a cult ski brand in French ski resorts.

NIKE: With an enviable team of pro-riders we’ve introduced cool snowboard boots from the mega-brand.

DOUCHEBAGS: An irreverent ski bag brand with a cult following, including superstars Jon Olsson, Elias Ambuhl and PK Hunder. The product is genius offering a rigid skeleton that rolls up to the correct ski length and rolls away for storage.

Hot Products and Innovations:

Salomon 360 Custom Shell ski boots – the next step up in Custom Shell boot fitting. The new range has a completely mouldable outer shell, which offers the ultimate in customisation and comfort.

Salomon Guardian bindings – a new innovation touring binding that’s compatible with alpine boots and sits closer to the ski offering a better power transition to the ski. The hike to ride function is so easy to use it will give more skiers access to touring. Also see the Atomic Tracker binding

GNU Impossible – Uses magnesium strands in construction and has an asymmetric edge for easier carving and ‘Balance Through Asymmetry’

PATTERNS are scarce with blocks of colour being more prevalent. Where patterns feature they’re subtle and understated. See Helly Hansen’s Nordic prints.

Skis: Rossignol’s women’s skis are designed by women for women and are the lynchpin of our women’s range. Performing exceptionally well in all conditions they consistently came out top with our testers.

Skis: K2 Brightside A new addition to K2’s range of backcountry skis, these perform well on and off piste. Voted top in test with our team of testers. Rockette 90 - Replacing the Lady, the Rockette is a new ski to Salomon’s female freeride range. Koa 84 is great fun both on and off piste, the Koa is a confidence boost for all-mountain skiers.

Women's – Snowboard:

FABRICS: We’ve ranged more GORE-Tex options for adventurous riders.

PATTERNS: Colour blocking, plaids and checks. Use of textured fabrics like twill and herringbone in jackets make them good options for city wear.

TREND: Helmets and goggles in bright colours add wow factor to an outfit.

Snowboards: Roxy Banana Smoothie - Using another generation of Lib Tech’s Banana Technology - EC2 BTX - with a mix of camber and rocker for the best of everything! British rising star Aimee Fuller will be riding on this board. Burton Lipstick: Burton’s Flat technology is a camber board that’s a stable easy ride. K2 Limelite – featuring Tweekends technology giving a more stable platform to land on and more float in powder.

Men's – Snowboard:

TREND: Textured fabrics like twill, herringbone, corduroy and denim make garments versatile enough to wear from the slope to the street. Street style shirts with hoodies or vests are fully technical to wear in the park.

COLOURS: Flouro yellow, greens and blues mix with more subdued hues such as burgundy, khaki and grey.

Backcountry:

Our specialist backcountry stores have the largest range of Backcountry and Avalanche safety equipment in the UK. We will also be running our popular Avalanche Safety talks in November.

Black Diamond is definitely the brand to watch. Already well known for specialist backcountry products, they’re now investing in developing their range of equipment and a large range will be featured in selected stores.

The North Face Patrol 24 backpack – a new ABS backpack.

Ortovox Zoom transceiver – simple to use and a good introductory price point for a transceiver.

K2 Pilchuck Kit – part of K2’s backcountry range the Pilchuck has everything you need in a neat backpack.

Notes to Editors: Snow+Rock opened their first store on Kensington High Street in 1982, they’ve since expanded across the UK and Ireland with 21 stores including 2 real snow locations and 2 boutiques with The North Face.